"Wow...what a shit hole"

A man wearing a red military beret remarks, as a loud thud crash could be heard close by, making a sweat bead form on his forehead.

"This shit hole is going to be your home for who knows how long… probably until you die" Another man stated as they did one final check on the plane.

"Tell me something I don't know"

The unknown man dragged a small duffle bag out from his side of the plane, just as the engine came to life and the propeller started up. "Have fun in paradise!" They commented before closing up the door and going down the makeshift runway.

"Fucking asshole" He mutters as he walked towards a building with a rather large hole in the roof. It would explain the loud crash he heard as he arrived. Course, the crash could be chalked up to numerous things, since the entire base was crumbling apart. Burnt out munition shells and stripped vehicles littered the area around the base.

Dropping his bag near what he assumed used to be a communication station, he searched his coat pocket for his herbal cigars. He wouldn't get addicted to the things, but the herbs used to make the thing released tar, and sooner or later it would fuck up his lungs. Of course, that would be problems for future him, if he lived that long that is. He clicked his tongue then moved his hand to his breast pocket, before finding them and taking one out. "Now, where the hell is my lighter?" He muttered as he searched his many pockets for the aforementioned lighter."Why the fuck do I have so many goddamned pockets?! Who the hell needs this many pockets?" he barked out, rather frustrated that he couldn't find the damn thing.

He let out a sigh, letting the unlit cigar hang out of his mouth, not wanting to get worked up over a small matter. Then again, that lighter was special to him, and he liked it too, since he had a small engraved rabbit on one side while on the other had the number 43.

"Commander Jackson?" A high enough pitched voice asked. While the pitch of the voice wasn't annoying, it clearly left no doubt it was female.

"Depending on the present company I suppose" Jackson replied as he leaned against the wall "But since you haven't tried to shoot, stab or knock me out, you must be Galil"

Small bits of movement, along with what he assumed was her weapon, moved around, and he turned around enough to see her snap to attention, which amused him a bit.

"Galil reporting for duty! I'll be counting on you!" She exclaimed, leaving him chuckling lightly.

"At ease" he stated as a silence consumed them as they stood out in open doing nothing.

"Commander?"

"Call me Avaro"

"Come again?" Galil questioned his remark, as she was taken a bit back.

"Or Rabbit, Maybe Jack. Hell some even call me Arrow" He commented as his left shoulder rose up a little, but quickly brought back down. "Call me commander if ya want, but it's a little odd to me in all honesty. So, whatcha need?"

"Avaro?"

"Speaking"

"This fell out of your pocket when you dropped your bag." She said while holding the lighter he had spent a bit looking for.

"How the hell did I not notice it fall?" Avaro commented on his stupidity as he took back the lighter. On the outside, it looked like a fancy Zippo light, but as he flicked it open and lit up his cigar it was obvious it was actually electrical.

Having some common courtesy, he blew the smoke away from her general direction. Letting the now lit cigar hang from his mouth, he picked up his duffle bag before turning to her.

"Are there others, or is it just us?" Avaro asked noticing the lack of other people or dolls. As if to make a point, a small cloud of dust blew past them.

"There's a rifle doll with us, but she's setting up your… 'Office'".

Avaro cocked a brow, noticing her tone when she mentioned his office, but if it was anything like the rest of this place he was expecting to just see a milk crate and a wooden spool as his table… maybe a wooden spool on wheels if he was lucky

"Alright, so where's it at?" Questioning her as he slung his bag over his back

"Over there"

Avaro followed her finger and could see it was a small distance away. Needless to say, it was a trailer that had old lawn chairs around a makeshift grill, which had small bits of smoke coming from it.

'How the hell did I miss the smoke? I'm not that tired… I think' He pondered as they slowly grew closer to said trailer.

"Over there is the pump giving us filtered water. Sadly the boiler needs to be replaced and some of the pipes around base need to as well, but otherwise we mostly have running water." Galil stated without knowing her commander had spaced out.

'Oh shit she's giving a tour'

Shaking his head lightly, he paid attention to her as she talked about another building they were walking by "Over there is what used to be a hangar and garage. There's tools and a working vehicle. We would have used it, but you came sooner than expected" Galil sheepishly remarked as her cheek turned a hint of red.

Avaro shrugged and the unexpected tour went on as they grew closer to his office.

"Over there used to a guard tower… but either due to neglect or attacks, it feel over" she stated as Avaro eyes nearly popped out of their socket. The top half of the tower had fallen through the roof of what may have been storage at one point in time.

"Does it get worse or better from here on out?"

"It used to be much worse, your office used to be ridden with mold. But, with cleaning supplies and a little elbow grease, it now 100% mold free!" she gleefully stated as the cigar in Avaro's mouth slipped.

'This base will kill me before the enemy does' Avaro thought to himself as he shook his head and wondered why the hell he got stuck here… oh yeah, he barely passed the G&K commander test… by one point actually.

Then again, the people in his particular group were filled with people that always had silver spoons in their mouths, but he would just chalk it up to his low score. What really killed him was the math section. Reading compression was a cake walk, science and tactics slightly above average understanding of, it was math that did him in. Graphs are easy enough to read, but complex equations took him a good while and that was to make an educated guess. For him to get a correct answer would take longer than he would like to admit, but that was then and he was stuck here.

"Commander?" Gali's voice put a halt to his thoughts as he jumped up a little

"Yeah?"

"We're here at your office..."

Avaro looked around and sure enough... they were standing outside of the trailer. He noticed a blue tarp on the roof, the door had a patched hole in the middle that looked last minute, and the window had fucking duct tape patching numerous bullet holes.

"This is certainly...interesting..." he remarked as Galil laughed nervously as she opened the door before stepping inside followed by Avaro. Two steps in part poppers went off and a banner came down reading "Welcome Commander Jackson!"

Avaro blinked a few times, Galil shrank down a little thinking that he was mad, shuffling could be heard before confetti fell onto him, and a party horn went off near his ear, causing him to wince. He turned to the offender while rubbing his right ear.

A blonde with two pigtails, pale skin, blue eyes, and uniform colored red, white, and a hint of brown all while exposing a a bit of cleavage, oh and he almost forgot about the red beret that somewhat matched his.

"Name."

"S-sir?"

"Name...please" Avaro added as he made eye contact with the doll who clearly looked terrified and maybe even ready to pass out.

"VM59, sir!" she managed to stutter out

Still rubbing his ear he pats her on the head, snatched the party horn, and threw it out the opened door with his left hand. "VM59, please never do that again. I like being able to hear"

"Yes sir.." she remarked before letting out a breath she wasn't aware she held in.

"Splendid! Now then, where is my desk and did any boxes come in before I arrived?" He asked ignoring the small cake on the table under the banner.

Galil huffed a little and VM59 chimed in. "In the next room. As for any boxes, a few did. Two are from headquarters, and one is from a commander named Briggs" she stated as she stood near a much more tidy looking door. He motioned for to open it and she did.

The office was kinda what he expected, surprisingly not as shit-tastic as he first thought. Had a wooden spool (with wheels) as a table, used office chair (top half had bits of tape covering holes), and of course, three boxes stacked on each other.

The walls were intact and the window had bits of tape (not shocking at the slightest), and wooden floor that creaked with every step. He dropped his bag near his desk and sat on his chair taking everything in. Letting out a deep sigh, he leaned a little to his left taking the first and smallest package. A wide rectangular box

"From Briggs." He stated to no one in particular and one brief struggle latter he got the package open. Reaching inside his hand made contact with another rectangular box, it even had a card on top! He cracked a small smile and opened up the card.

"Welcome to the real fight kid

Don't bite the dust before we do, ya hear? Otherwise, we'll have to bring your ass back to life and kill you ourselves. Ditch what the books say, remember what we taught you, and trust yourself.

You may be your own commander now, but to me you'll always be that one kid who grew up alongside the damned 43

-Briggs & Members of the Damned 43"

Avaro's smile grew larger with each word he read and perhaps he wanted to shed a tear, but if Briggs ever got whiff of it he would never hear the end of it. So, with all the willpower he could muster, he held it in. Setting down the card turning his attention to the next small wooden box, he opened it up like a kid on Christmas morning.

Inside, and he probably should have guessed it, were nice thick herbal cigars and a sticky note on top saying "For those special occasions". He chuckled a little before placing the card and box down on his desk.

Reaching back into the package now on his lap, he felt another wooden box. Pulling it out, he raised a brow seeing this one was much smaller and lighter. Perhaps a special cigar? Opening it, he was a shocked to see a wooden pipe. Given by the engravings on the side, it was custom made, and seeing that it was rather dark, it's material was dark oak. It even came with a small wooden stand to hold it up. Reaching back into the package, he pulled out small tins of grinded herbs marked Peppermint, Skullcap, and his favorite, Mugwort. Again letting out a small smile, he placed them down on his desk before once again going back into the box, this time finding an envelope.

Opening that, he found pictures from his transformation from a chubby little kid to his final days at the base with the others and their dolls. He placed them back into the envelope and onto the corner of his desk. This was no time to get emotional, not when this place could be attacked at anytime, and was barely functional.

"Commander?" Both Galil and VM59 said as their sensors picked up his emotional distress.

Avaros attitude did a complete 180. He sat up straight and looked at them, finally remembering he was a commander and let his emotions get the better of him. He cleared his throat and once again gave him his blank face "Yes?"

"... need help unpacking your things?" Galil asked taking note of his attitude change.

"Mm? Yeah sure. Open and sort out the large package, I'll deal with the medium"Hhe commanded as he lifted it up and put on his desk "Do we have a knife or any sharp object?" He asked noting that this had lots of tape on it.

Few minutes and two unpacked packages later, Avaros office was a lot more of a mess. A small satellite dish leaned against his desk, along with a small antenna. On his desk was a work laptop with a router and the assorted wires. Some sort of small drone laid on the floor, hygienic items cluttered a small corner, and of course, papers were in his hands.

"Congratulations and Computers typed greeting BS… instillation stuff… ordering material… they're aware of my shit base and sending things my way… ah here we go my objectives…. Search and rescue, FOB refueling aircraft, and defending settlements " Avaro mutters as he skimmed the papers in his hand. He clicked his tongue and tossed the papers onto his desk knocking over the pipe.

He caught it mid air and sighed in relief, before putting it back up on its small stand. "Might as well install that Antenna and satellite dish" He murmured as he started to pick up the two items,some cable, and of course, the instructions.

"Commander, whatcha doing?' Galil inquired noticing him stepping outside of the trailer

"Installing some things so we can at least have bare bones communication and internet here" he replied as he stepped outside, quickly tailed by her.

"Commander?" VM called out seeing Avaro walk to the side of the trailer

"Installing things" he replied, already knowing what she wanted to ask him.

VM looked at Galil, who gave a small shrug unsure what to do. Avaro, for his part, dropped the materials carefully onto the ground, before using a rope that held down the cheap blue tarp.

"Commander!" both Galil and MB called out seeing the person they're supposed to protect do something rather dangerous.

"Relax… I got… this!" He exclaimed as he pulled himself up onto the roof. Slowly standing up, he tested the parts not covered in blue tarp and was confident enough that his weight wouldn't go crashing through.

Stepping carefully, he went towards the area where his office stood "One of you hand me the antenna and the cable, while the other goes to my office to set up the router" he commanded as he stood there getting a better view of things.

The two stood there a little flustered on what he did, despite the fact that he could have told them to do it instead. "Today would be nice ya know!" he barked causing the two to recoil, before quickly going about their tasks

A few short moments later VM was in the office standing near the window, Galil was holding cable and Avaro… well Avaro was balancing, trying to latch the antenna onto the trailer and not fall off the roof. Getting the thing to finally latch onto the side of the trailer, he connected the cable running it down near the window, Galil inserts it through a re-opened hole, and VM pulled it in.

"Okay, now hand me the satellite dish, hand me the screw, tripod, and the manual hand drill" Avaro commanded Galil as he held out his hand for the objects. Galil, as you would expect, handed each item one at a time.

"Commander?" Galil called out as Avaro set up the tripod at an angle

"Yes?"

"You do realize that you could have asked us to do this, right?" she questioned as she held the actual satellite dish

"I do, but I like being busy. Was never a fan of just doing desk work, prefer to hands on work" He responded as he started to drill down one of the legs of the tripod. "Besides, there's not much to do right now"

"Right"

A few moments passed before Avaro put his hand down, motioning for the dish. Once he had it in his hands, he went about setting it up. Attaching a cable here and making it questionably stand up, Avaro jumped down to the ground (Much to the annoyance of the dolls and his knees).

"Right, now for some minor set up and we should finally be able to communicate with others" Avaro stated as they went back inside "If we're lucky we'll get two megabyte internet" he joked as they walked into his office, with VM setting up a set of small boxes and attaching some smaller cables, all of which connected to the side of a medium sized box that a single landline cord coming out from the bottom, which was connected to a modem that finally broadcast some sort of WIFI.

The wires were a mess (and that's putting it nicely), but Avaro opted to deal with that later as he started up his laptop, typed in his pin and inserted his ID to the side port, before connected to the secure net. "Wow… it was worse than I thought…. only 500 kilobits a second… FUCK!"

MB and Galil jumped hearing him actually scream for the first time. Avaro sighs before sitting down on his chair and looked at his laptop getting notifications of emails that would take a while to open and read. He clicked on one and picked up a different piece of paper.

"Okay, the drone used to assess the state of the base and advise course of action… may need a one gigabyte update… MOTHERFUCKER" He barked as he sunk his head into his hands, leaving the two dolls in front of him unaware of how to react to this sort of thing.

"Fuck it, whatever" he remarked as he picked up the drone and did whatever he had to connect it to his laptop and network. "Course there's an update...500 megabytes..." he sighs and looked at the two.

"So what's to eat around here?"

"Uhhh… MREs and canned fruit" Galil remarked causing Avaro to let another sigh out as he should have figured as much, but for whatever reason hoped it would be better.

"We have a small cake if you want it..may be a little cold though" Galil went on causing him to perk up a little.

"Please. And VM, kindly get the MREs" he commanded as he started to read the loaded Email.

Email 1 of 4

Sender: G&K HQ

Subject: Welcome to your first post

Avaro rolled his eyes and deleted, before waiting for the next email to load. While that happened, he decided to read the instructions and other papers he tossed onto his desk.

Knock, Knock

"Enter" he stated without looking up from the paper he was semi-interested (mainly because it was instruction on what to do with the drone).

"Beef stew, Spaghetti or some sort of tuna?" VM asked as she held up three packets that, just looking at, made Avaro cringe.

"Beef stew" he stated as he heard a small thunk on his desk. Looking away from his paper, he could see a crude tin holding a cake of some kind and standing ahead of it was Galil. "Thanks" he grunted out before looking at his laptop.

Email 1 or 3

Sender: G&K HQ

Subject: Supplies

We are aware of the state of your commanding base and are mobilizing a few logistical personal to get you supplies, building materials, and a few construction drones. Kindly allow the drone to scan the base and send the data within 48 hours, so we may know the quantity and types of supplies to send you.

"Nice to know they'd think I won't read the instructions" he commented as a plastic fork was placed on his desk "Thanks" he said as he slid the cake closer to himself before sticking the fork into as he loaded up another email. Taking a bit of the cake into his mouth he took note of how soft and fluffy it was "Pretty good" he commented with his mouth still full of cake

Galil smiled on the outside, but on the inside she thought "PRETTY GOOD!?" But she let go of that thought soon enough and that was the end of it.

Email 2 of 3

Sender: G&K HQ

Subject: Monthly objectives

Due to the current state of your base, objectives will be rather limited.

Objective 1: Bring your base to the bare minimum of acceptable living conditions. The bare minimum is a Sanitary place to eat, sleep, and take care of hygienic needs. Anything else is up to you, and the moral of your dolls should be taken into consideration

Objective 2: repair local towers

Communication is vital, and due to constant attacks on the sector, most of the tower's in the sector have fallen in disarray, making communication difficult at best. On your end, that means support will be limited, and scouting for us will be near impossible. We'll send over the resources, instructions and the coordinates of the towers.

Avaro just sighs losing his appetite and opened up the last email. He tapped his fingers and cheered up a little seeing the sender was from Briggs.

Email 3 of 3

Sender: Commander Briggs

Subject: Checking up.

Still kicking? I hope you are, and that that pilot didn't get you killed. I hear the base you got assigned to is utter shi,t and rumor has they were about to mark it a lost cause, but changed last minute when your batch of commanders were brought in.

Wonder who's cereal you pissed in to get assigned there. Anyways, I'll be paying a visit when I get a chance and see how the whole place is looking. Don't die to early.

-Briggs

"Galil, quick question"

"Yes?"

"How long have you two been here, and how do you bath? Where did you sleep, and even though I can guess, what did you eat?" Avaro questioned as he leaned back in his chair.

"Hmmm… well, we wash in a tub, we slept on the floor of this trailer, and we've eaten MREs with canned fruit for the past two weeks" Galil happily replied

"I wouldn't call soaking in semi-boiling water bathing..." MB grumbled as she felt what Avaro would rightly assume was her rather greasy hair.

"Well we have hygienic items so go bathe… properly" Avaro commanded as he looked at the progress of the drone update

VM and Galil looked at each other for a moment, before Avaro chimed in, noting that they haven't moved "That's an order you two"

Now since it was an order, they gathered some supplies and left the office, making sure they closed the door. Out of sight, Avaro gave himself a whiff and recoiled in disgust.

"I don't think I showered since graduation" He murmured as he waited for the damn thing to update.

Outside, the two started the routine of getting the bath ready. A barrel (oil drum) would be basically sat between a fire and left alone with the water to heat up. Using a bucket, they would then transport the water (using the questionable buckets) to the tub, and usually soak in their for a good half hour. This time however, they could actually bathe.

"Do you think the commander noticed us smelling bad?" Galil asked VM as they opened the value, letting the cold liquid flow freely into their buckets.

"I don't think he noticed our Bo since his is stronger" She commented, earning a light smack to the back of her head.

"Shush! what if he heard us?" Galil whispered while looking around

"I don't think he can hear us from inside the trailer" VM retorted as she changed the bucket, spilling some cold water onto Galil.

She grumbled and muttered something about not wanting to be decommissioned like other dolls, usually to get cores, or fed to other dolls in order to improve them. VM rolled her eyes as she switched to the third bucket, and the two sat in silence as the water poured in.

"The commander does realize smoking any type of substance is bad for his health, right?" VM asked not liking the silence.

"I think he does, but he must be stressed" Galil figured, and for VM, that was good enough. Besides, who wouldn't be stressed? Getting stuck with two common dolls and a base that looked ready to collapse at a moments notice? They weren't sure what he used to before becoming their commander. Maybe he was the son of a wealthy man, but in their experience (mainly Galil's), they would raise hell if they even got a look at them, and would rather go rogue than be at this base. That marked that out of the question, so maybe he was a soldier of some kind, but he lacked the discipline of one. He was a little too carefree, but lower ranking soldiers tended to be like that, so the possibility wasn't completely out of the picture.

"What do you think he used to do?" Galil asked as that questioned was on her mind and needed to discussed with someone. Not that it really mattered (okay maybe just a little), but a lot of commanders tended to give out that kind of information right off the bat. Something about building a better bond with their dolls and those under them, plus their attitudes usually gave it away.

"No idea, but maybe it has something to do with whatever was in that envelope and that Briggs person" VM commented as she shut off the water and picked up two buckets, before starting to walk followed by Galil holding the third bucket.

"Think we should ask him about it?"

"Maybe, but we should wait once this place is actually running"

Time passed, and the two, while significantly cleaner, still had dirty clothing, but at least their hair was no longer greasy! The two went back to Avaro, who was busy typing away as the small drone flew out of the office.

"Commander, what's the drone doing?" Vm questioned as Avaro looked up from his laptop

"Surveying the base and such" he replied as a small light could be seen out from his window

"Avaro?"

"Yes Galil?" He grunted as he typed up something and once again the drone let out another light

"You smell" she bluntly stated and this time she received a smack on the back of her head from VM.

Avaro stopped for a moment, sniffed himself and shrugged "Seems I do, what's your point?" He retorted with the same bluntness she gave him.

"Would you like to bathe? We can heat up more water for you, and there is still plenty of items for your use" VM stated as Avaro still typed, just what the hell was so important.

"Commander?"

"Hmm?" and then again there was that light from the drone.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you doing?" Galil questioned as the light started to get annoying to her and VM.

"Talking with Ms four eyes up in HQ about resources and getting more backup in here" he responded as the light flashed….again.

"Commander?"

"VM"

"Are you going to bathe?"

"Well, will it make you happy if I do?" he asked while using his feet to take off his dress shoes, which had lost their shine hours ago.

"Very much, and it woul-" she was cut off as Avaro held up his hand.

"Alright, I'll bathe, tell Ms. Four eyes here that you're the one talking and that the drone will SLOWLY, transmit the data of the base" Avaro stated as he stood up from his chair leaving his coat in his chair and his beret on the desk. Taking cleaning relaxed clothing (that's really all he had) with some basic hygienic items, he walked out of the office leaving the two dolls baffled.

"Well you heard the commander..." VM said as Galil slowly sat down in his chair.

"What do I say?' She asked unsure what to do

"Well he did say to state he was bathing and you're the one talking" VM stated with a shrug.

And this is how an awkward conversation between the two dolls and Ms. Helian occurred that would haunt our new commander.

As that happened, Avaro sat in cold water that now was dirtied by whatever filth he had on his body. He relaxed a little as his feet hanged out of the tub, he relaxed a little too much as his mind started to wonder, thinking about thing he hadn't thought for a while.

'Wonder what happened to the others, last I heard Frankie got chosen to be stationed in some rich sector next to… Oscar… thinking about that rich brat makes my blood boil…. so much for a relaxing bath'

He chuckled a little, wishing he brought his cheap cigarettes with him. He sighs and once again his mind wandered to something else.

'Those coats are nice and all, but the fact we have to look formal bugs me to high hell. Like who the fuck do we have to impress? 99 percent of our time is with dolls, .5 with higher up and the other .5 is when shit goes to hell and we're getting shot at'

Of course, he knew that he would (eventually) have to spend times with those that had their heads up their asses. Rich pricks who wanted to pocket some greedy or blind commander, someone they could have to protect them or their assets, even though someone else signed their main paychecks and the whole reason they had their small army.

'Then again I nearly fell for it, so I can't be that hard on those who did' His thought went on as he picked up some body wash from some company he never heard of. He started to scrub himself with his hands as the memory played.

'Briggs had a fucking field day with me….I wonder how he knew I was scheduled to be at that party… then again it's Briggs, best fucking mentor I could ask for. To think I would nearly fall for the sales pitch and that some pampered prick thought he could out scream Briggs'

Chuckling louder than he thought, he quieted himself and poured some cold dirty soap bubbly water onto himself.

'Then Jade, his oathed doll, pulled my ear, right in front of my peers and made Briggs seem like chihuahua. I think they're the reason those people avoided me like I had the infection...I do hope they're alright.'

He sighs and submerged his head under the water for a bit before poking it back up. He chuckled a little again recalling another memory as he picked up off brand shampoo.

'Jade… she may have been a common doll, but my god I wouldn't on the receiving end of her anger… oh wait I was a filthy little shit who refused to bathe and she would have to stand guard outside of the bathroom otherwise I wouldn't… man I was a troubled child'

He shook his head and made sure the shampoo really got into his hair.

'If she saw me now, she would fucking kill me for being filthy… good times thinking about it now, right, I've been here for long enough'

He stood up, causing water to spill out and since he had no towel, it made his clothing a little wet. He didn't mind though. Being in sweat pants and a T-shirt was lot better than being in some button up shirt and dress pants. After he was all dressed and cleaned up his little mess, he went back to his office. On his way back, the drone was now taking pictures of the hangar and some of the outer places of the area. He shrugged as he guessed it was nearly done doing its thing, and soon enough the data would start uploading to whoever's job it was to look at it.

Walking into his office, he noticed Galil trying to hide behind VM who in turn was trying not to look him in the eye. He shrugged not really thinking much about it and sat back down in his chair, then nearly had a heart attack.

H: I'll make sure your mentor Commander Briggs is aware of your little nickname for me.

Avaro frowned a little confused, and proceeded to type a response

A: Excuse me Ma'am?

H: Four eyes, I'll make sure Briggs knows he still hasn't drilled you not to come up with such childish things.

A: Understood, have a good day.

Closing his laptop and letting out a deep sigh he tapped his fingers against the table. On the outside he looked fine and cool as ice, but on the inside, he had three words repeating over and over again.

Fucking end me.